📂 Tyler Perry's email list built a billion-dollar empire

400,000 people on a list. That's the entire moat.  ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

Today's newsletter is proudly supported by Testimonial Hero 🎉 ​ Need a standout video testimonial that actually converts? I partnered with Testimonial Hero after they knocked it out of the park for my agency, Conversion Factory. They took the hassle out of capturing our client’s story, delivering a polished video that’s now front and center on our site. I was so impressed, I even let them film me for their own testimonial! Mention “Corey” or “Swipe Files” to snag $350 off your first project. Check out Testimonial Hero → Dan Runcie shared this on Twitter a while back and it hasn't left my head: Dan Runcie @RuncieDan Tyler Perry has the GOAT email list. 400K strong back in 2004. Without that list, the first Madea movie doesn't succeed. There would have been no sequels, no TV shows, or film studios. He's a billionaire because he had direct access to fans. 10:42 AM • May 13, 2021 40 Retweets 306 Likes Read 13 replies ​ The summary: Tyler Perry had a 400,000-person email list in 2004. Before the first Madea movie. Before the TV shows. Before the studio. He used that list to market the first film directly to the audience he had spent a decade building through stage plays in the Black church circuit. The film hit. The list grew. The empire compounded. He's a billionaire because he owned the relationship with the audience. Not because he had the best distribution deal or the best agent. He owned the list. The lesson most SaaS founders get wrong The version of this lesson that gets repeated in SaaS circles is something like "build an audience." It's not wrong. It's just too vague to be useful. The specific lesson is this: the channel you don't own can be taken from you. Twitter algorithm change. Google search update. Meta ad cost spike. App Store policy. SEO content getting AI-summarized before anyone clicks through. Every channel you don't own can change the rules on you overnight. The list is the one channel where the rules don't change. You wrote the email, you press send, it arrives. There's no algorithm in between. What a SaaS-equivalent looks like You're not Tyler Perry. You're probably not building a 400K-person consumer entertainment list. But the structural play is identical: Build the list early, before you "need" it. Tyler Perry's list was a decade of stage plays in. The list compounded long before the movie did. Make the relationship direct. Not gated. Not behind a community platform someone else owns. An email. To an inbox. Where they can reply. Use the list for the real moments. Launches. Pivots. Acquisitions. Surveys. The list is the thing you press the button on when you need the audience to show up. Don't squander it on filler. The list dies when every email is "here's our latest blog post." The list lives when every email is worth opening. The companies in SaaS that have done this well — Basecamp, MailerLite, Hey, ConvertKit, and yes, Swipe Files — built audiences before they built revenue, and the list has been the gravitational center of everything since. The Tweet, X, LinkedIn, and YouTube channels are amplification. The list is the asset. If you're starting from zero, start the list this week. If you've been collecting names but not really using it, send something this week. The asset only works if you keep the relationship warm. —Corey p.s. want my brain-power on marketing your business? Book a Marketing Power Hour or invest in a Swipe Files Membership. Swipe Files does not have sponsors. We have partners. We partner with trusted top-tier service providers. In fact, I reached out to them — each one has been carefully selected and vetted so I have 100% confidence in recommending them to you. 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